Hi John,
Wow, I'm blown away to find out that we played against each other back when. I can't believe I was sending good wishes to a member of The Storm. I take it all back.
This is a public forum, so I should explain that Cascade Hockey League Bears vs. Storm rivalry was like Yankees-Red Sox plus Bears-Packers to some exponontial degree. My therapist gets tired of hearing about the league championship where the format was a 2 game playoff (what genius thought of that?), and then after we each took a game, the shootout was tied, so they went to head-to-head results during the season (also tied), and then they gave you guys the trophy based on goal differential during the season. It was something crazy like that. Jesky scored a big goal during the championship 2nd game, and I also recall the last regular season game when Holstein scored a garbage goal in the final minute (to make a 6-2 game 6-3 or something) and he celebrated out of proportion. Came to find out that he must have known that goal differential was part of the tie-break criteria. And speaking of the differences in equipment, to add injury to insult, literally, that goal hit an unpadded part on the inner thigh and gave me the biggest black-and-blue mark I'd ever received--until a partial hamstring tear years later. What Holstein lacked in finesse, he made up for with a heavy shot and a strong will to score. I liked his game.
But seriously, that was a good rivalry, and I also recall that we all went to a banquet room and smuggled in cases of beer after that game at the Coliseum. If you see any of those guys, give them my regards!
I had to laugh about your description of trying to get in walks for therapy and then getting pulled into conversations. I felt un-neighborly when I would sometimes look out the window to check if the coast was clear before heading out.
Your surgery (with restrictions) sounds a bit similar to my 2nd surgery (crutches for a month - 25% weight bearing). But it's good that you can still do the PT. You're gaining the benefits of recovery based on your work, but with your restrictions, you don't really see the results. When the restrictions are lifted, you should zoom ahead to nearly catch up to where you would be if you hadn't been under restriction. At least that's how it seemed to me.
And a note to Brian, to add to our cycling discussion, I went on the road yesterday! I was joking about the difference between that and my indoor compu-trainer-like rig: the scenery really envelopes you as you ride, there are bumps in the road, and stop signs, and puddles, and such. But it was great to really ride again. I took it pretty easy: 45 min, 10 miles, under 15 mph avg on a flat course.
The ride provided another aha moment to the recovery. Unlike Cory Faulk (for e.g., who writes in this site about completing an ironman 3 mo post-surgery), this isn't my profession, and I'm trying to strike a balance between doing all I can to promote recovery while avoiding risk of overworking and also while staying employed in my real job. A couple weeks ago, I would have thought Cory's surgery must have been entirely different from mine or the reports of his ironman were a hoax - not seriously, but it was that unimaginable. After yesterday, it's within the realm of conceptual possibility. Not for me of course, not where I'm at, but I could imagine it being done.
Keep up the recovery,
-Dirk